The longest run of your life. Jackson Bodtker and Zach Halverson navigate the upper pitches of Mount Rainier, WA’s Success Couloir, the beginning of a 10,000-foot descent. Photo: Drew Petersen MILE 4,608; MAY 9; MOUNT RAINIER, WA; 14,411 FEET Opinions are heated, but even amid our frustration, the group’s safety remains paramount. It is getting late, and, as a result, warm. We are just too slow, too big of a group. The top pitch to Point Success, and then to the summit of Mount Rainier, are simply out of reach for today, and that’s O.K. “The mountain will always be here to try again.” “The decision to not go is never wrong.” “The summit is optional. Getting down safely is not.” As we transition, we employ all the clichés we’ve picked up from ski partners, avalanche course instructors and famous mountaineers. By now, they’re all said by rote. And they are all true. Ironically, we choose the Success Couloir as our way down. Part of my heart feels defeated, but the chute’s moniker offers consolation. Traveling safely through the mountains is the ultimate goal. That, and we still have 10,000 feet of vertical descent, the longest run any of us have ever skied. The forecast promises one more day of clear weather, and so after burgers and beers—Rainier, of course—with the crew, Zach Halverson and I head south to Oregon. We discuss the decisions we made on Mount Rainier. We are happy, proud even, to have turned around. “I don’t want to die in the mountains,” we echo to each other. We pull into the parking lot at Timberline ski area, on the south side of Mount Hood, sometime after midnight. Four hours of sleep and we’ll be on the move again, starting our ascent at dawn. 074 The Ski Journal
The Ski Journal Volume Eleven, Issue Two: Page 74
